GPRS recently visited Washington, D.C. to discuss with lawmakers the importance of proactive maintenance and protection of our nation’s underground wastewater infrastructure.
Michael Wheeler, GPRS’ Market Segment Leader for Water/Wastewater, visited our nation’s capital as part of a delegation of members of the National Association of Sewer Service Companies (NASSCO). This non-profit organization provides industry-leading training on the most advanced, non-destructive methods to detect and report subsurface anomalies within sewer lines.
Wheeler and his fellow NASSCO members spoke with staff members from the offices of Senators and Congressional Representatives from Georgia, Florida, and Ohio about the importance of being proactive rather than reactive when it comes to maintaining America’s wastewater infrastructure.
“Based on my Apple Watch, we walked over 7 miles back and forth between the House and the Senate for these meetings,” Wheeler said. “[The purpose of our visit] was really just to get the word out on continuing to fund the infrastructure bill, why we should do that, and talking about the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) most recent Report Card of American Infrastructure, which graded our infrastructure a C-.”
While the ASCE gave America’s infrastructure an overall grade of C- in its most recent report card, our country’s wastewater infrastructure received an even more troubling D+.
In explaining the grade, the ASCE wrote that “the nation’s more than 16,000 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are functioning, on average, at 81% of their design capacities, while 15% have reached or exceeded it,” and “Thousands of miles of the nation’s aging pipes are buried beneath increasingly urbanized cities and will require more and more inter-agency collaboration and data sharing, particularly as maintenance needs grow.”
“In a 2019 American Water Works Association report, as much as 62% of wastewater pipeline maintenance performed by combined utilities occurs through the proactive execution of asset management plans,” the report continues. “The remaining 38% is completed as a reactive response to failures.”
Signed into law in 2021, the bipartisan Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) kickstarted a boom in new infrastructure construction and existing infrastructure maintenance projects that is expected to continue for several years.
While the act authorized up to $1.2 trillion in transportation and infrastructure spending, Congress votes to decide whether individual programs will receive full or partial funding each year. This includes wastewater infrastructure projects, which were authorized for nearly $13 billion in total funding through the Infrastructure Law.
In addition to urging for continued support of IIJA, GPRS and its fellow NASSCO members urged for regulatory compliance enforcement for pipeline condition assessments.
NASSCO’s Pipeline Assessment Certification Program (PACP™), Lateral Assessment Certification Program (LACP™), and Manhole Assessment Certification Program (MACP™) are the gold standard for accurate and repeatable assessment condition coding of pipelines, laterals, and manholes. GPRS video pipe inspection Project Managers complete all three of these programs before they are allowed into the field to conduct sewer scope inspections.
“This is important for us, because the idea is to make sure that people with the correct certifications are doing the condition assessments for the pipelines,” Wheeler said. “So we’re looking for Congress to support a standardization of condition assessment, which is what NASSCO is championing.”
Finally, Wheeler and the rest of the NASSCO delegation called for the strengthening of the asset management requirements.
“If we don’t know where any of our underground wastewater assets are. If we’re not locating them accurately, mapping them and accurately storing those maps after they’ve been located, we’re of no help to anyone 20 years from now,” Wheeler said. “So, we are wanting them to put language in so that if you do get [funding], you have an asset management plan in place.”
Wheeler said that the offices he and NASSCO spoke with exhibited a deep understanding of the nation’s infrastructure issues, and he felt that the contingent’s message was taken seriously.
“I met with seven different offices and each office generally seemed like they cared,” he said. “They asked very good questions, took very good notes, and when we offered to be a resource, they were willing to take us up on that.”
Wheeler added that it’s important for NASSCO and its members, including GPRS, to have a seat at the table when discussing our nation’s infrastructure issues because of our proven dedication to maintaining and improving this infrastructure.
“We see it every single day,” he said. “And GPRS is special in that because of our national footprint, we’re seeing it on a national scale to an amount that no other company is. We’re seeing failing infrastructure every single day.”
GPRS Services Support Infrastructure Projects of All Shapes & Sizes
GPRS’ suite of subsurface damage prevention, existing condition documentation, and construction & facilities project management services are designed to ensure projects of all shapes and sizes stay on time, on budget, and safe. That includes infrastructure projects, where we can provide support from planning to operation and maintenance (O&M) through our utility locating, concrete imaging, video pipe inspection, leak detection, and 3D laser scanning offerings.
For wastewater projects specifically, our video (CCTV) pipe inspection service is a safe and non-destructive method of locating and mapping your waste and stormwater infrastructure. Using industry-leading sewer scope inspection technology, our professional, SIM and NASSCO-certified Project Managers evaluate your lines for cracks, blockages, cross bores, and other defects that could lead to service interruptions or endanger the communities these systems serve.
When you hire GPRS to inspect your sewer lines, you receive a detailed WinCan report listing all defects located, ranked by severity and identified with both photo and video evidence to assist you in maintenance and repair planning.
To help you plan, design, manage, dig, and build better, GPRS created SiteMap®, our cloud-based infrastructure mapping solution, to improve and expedite asset management by serving as a single source of truth for the accurate infrastructure data collected on site by our Project Managers.
Securely accessible 24/7 from any computer, tablet, or mobile device, and compatible with your existing GIS platform, SiteMap® enables seamless communication and collaboration between team members so that you can plan, design, dig, maintain, and ultimately build better.
GPRS SiteMap® team members are currently scheduling live, personal SiteMap® demos so you can see what this software can do for you. Click below to sign up for your demo today!
From skyscrapers to sewer lines, GPRS Intelligently Visualizes The Built World® to keep you on time, on budget, and safe.
What can we help you visualize? Click below to schedule a service or request a quote today!
